Incessant incremental initiatives improve on incandescent innovation

That i-ful means that law department which tinker and try and retool will fare better than law departments that go for the homerun of the dramatic and new. Kaizen, the Japanese word for continuous improvement, has the value of compounded interest: keep at it and you will have a wealth of processes operating better and better.

A law department of ten lawyers has hundreds of processes, policies, practices, structural elements and other opportunities for progress. (See my post of April 5, 2005 claiming more innovation comes from larger law departments, Sept.10, 2005 light bulbs compared to dawn.)

Everyone puts a positive valence on the term “innovation.” It’s not a necessary outcome of innovation, however, as a new practice can be deeply flawed.